14th French Hussar Regiment, 1813

This article previously appeared in Issue
1 of the German-language magazine Depesche, which is
published by our partner, Napoleon
Online. We appreciate the kindness of the editor, Markus
Stein, for giving us permission to publish the translation.

Here we will deal with a relatively unknown regiment, which even
in works such as Malibran receives only a brief mention –
namely the 14th Hussar regiment.

A distinction must be made here between the regiment as newly formed
in 1813 and the 14th regiment as formed in 1814 by merging the 13th
and previous 14th Hussars. Both formations were supposed to have
different uniforms, though those of 1814 were a colourful mixture
of the old uniforms of the 13th and (old) 14th regiments as well
as the new regulation uniform.

We will therefore concentrate in this article on the first formation
from 1813 and present a short text about the exact theoretical organisation
of a hussar regiment for the years 1813/14, as well as a short discussion
of the rank insignia of the French hussars. In another article,
the figures of the second formation from 1814 will be described,
accompanied by a short regimental history.

Organisation

In 1813, each hussar regiment was supposed to consist of 5 squadrons
as well as a regimental staff. The 5th squadron under the command
of the major remained in the regimental depot to receive and train
freshly conscripted recruits. In January 1813 a sixth squadron was
ordered to be raised, but considering that for almost every regiment
even the 5th squadron was just a vague concept, this plan never
made it past the embryonic stage.

This gives a theoretical strength for a regiment of 5 squadrons
of approximately 1035 men (including 49 officers) with about 1055
horses (including 60 – 65 officers’ mounts).

It must once again be noted that these figures were never actually
met, because the actual regimental strengths in the years following
the disaster of 1812 lay well below these figures and most of the
troops had to set off on campaign on foot or with only substandard
(plough) horses.

Rank insignia

Other ranks and NCOs wear their rank insignia on the dolman and
pelisse sleeves, while officers also have them on both thighs of
the breeches as well as on the shabraques and shakos by means of
lace of various widths.

However I will concentrate only on the insignia worn on the sleeves,
which are shown on page 17. These drawings show the position on
the dolman sleeve, though the insignia on the pelisse sleeve was
worn in exactly the same fashion.

The insignia matched the button colour of each particular regiment,
so they were white for the 14th regiment.

In particular for the 14th Hussars, they were as follows:

Hussar – only a 1 cm wide white braid edging on the cuff

Brigadier (Corporal) – two woollen tresses,
each 2.5 cm wide, over the cuff (the tresses at a distance of 1
cm from each other)

Brigadier-fourrier (Quartermaster-Corporal) – in
addition to the two chevron tresses of the brigadier, another 2.5
cm wide silver slanted tress on the upper sleeve.

Adjutant-major -
this rank requires an exact explanation; according to my documents
it is apparently a lieutenant with more than two years service as
such and who is just before promotion to captain; so I can only
make some assumptions as to his insignia, but probably these were
the three chevron tresses of the captain – a further feature
of the adjutant-major was a cane, the meaning of which is however
fully unclear to me – maybe a reader can help with solving
this mystery?

Capitaine (Captain) – three 1 cm wide silver
tresses above the cuff

Chef d’escadron (Squadron chief) – according
to regulations, three silver, 1 cm wide tresses as well as one silver,
2.2. cm wide tress, which is fixed second above the cuff – more
often though, one finds the arrangement as shown on page 17, namely
alternately two thin (1 cm) and two wide (2.2. cm) chevron tresses

Enfant de troupe (?) – are these the musicians
of the regiment? Which reader can help me to clarify this?

Maréchal-ferrant (farrier) – a horseshoe
in the button colour (white for the 14th regiment) on the right
upper sleeve

In addition, to mark the years of service red woollen chevron tresses
were worn on the left upper sleeve of the dolman, the pelisse and
the coat of the other ranks and NCOs as follows: 1 tress for at
least 10 years, 2 tresses for at least 15 years and three tresses
for at least 20 years.

Description of the Plate

The two figures pictured in the plate by Mr Wagner are shown in
the so-called Elsässiches Manuskript, later revised
and reproduced by R. Forthoffer. They are a trumpeter (on the left)
and a hussar (on the right), the latter standing out by the unusual
fact of being armed with a lance as well as the non-regulation so-called
trefoil epaulette on the pelisse (probably to fix the cross belt).